Davis pays homage to the dreamers and the Glorious Dead.

The British filmmaker's composer portraits for the BBC are Limelight's Recording of the Month in August.

Scenes from a life x3: A trio of British composers are reborn in masterly, moving documentaries.

Kate Moore will be the orchestra’s composer-in-residence, with two of her major works to be premiered.

Lukáš Vondráček nailed every facet of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto, while John Wilson led a dignified, stirring rendition of Elgar's Second Symphony.

Sir Andrew Davis’s fat knight offers all the requisite swagger.

Five in harmony as FS Kelly joins the Brits.

Matheson and Neave deliver pathos, irony and eye-twinkling humour in this musical biography of the famed resistance fighter.

Every British conductor worth his or her salt has recorded the symphony, as have Solti, Barenboim, Slatkin, Ashkenazy and Sinopoli. The trick with Elgar, especially in this symphony, is to avoid lugubriousness and Gardner manages well getting the piece off to a quiet and measured start. The transition from the well-performed Scherzo into the slow movement is handled perfectly. However, after listening to Barbirolli’s beautifully nuanced recording, the ordinariness of this newcomer is clear. Sir John’s is the one to beat. Of the other performances I sampled all were of a very high standard. There is Boult, of course, and a splendid version from Mackerras and the LSO; he gets great feeling into the noblimente theme. Then there is the remarkable recording Colin Davis made with the Dresden Staatskapelle in 1997. The power of the German orchestra, its heft and discipline, is remarkable and it blows the competition out of the water. In this field, a new recording must stand tall and this one is a bit average. The Introduction and Allegro is long recognised as a virtuoso piece for string orchestra and there are no shortages of… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

Steve Davislim's Tito will also be among the highlights to catch the ears of Aussie audiences.

English masterpieces by Elgar and Vaughan Williams in superbly played programme.

Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta catapulted into public consciousness when she won the Crédit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2004 and subsequently debuted with the Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev. She was 23 then, but had won her first competition at the age of ten, and now enjoys a hectic international career as one of the world’s most famous and highly-regarded cellists. Her wide-ranging repertoire includes three albums of works by Vivaldi and his contemporaries, recorded with Capella Gabetta, the ensemble she founded with her brother Andrés. In addition to core 19th-century repertoire, she is also committed to contemporary compositions, and has recorded an album of works by Latvian composer Pe¯teris Vasks which included his Second Cello Concerto, written especially for Gabetta.  This latest album features two 20th-century masterworks – the first, arguably the most famous cello concerto in the repertoire; the second, virtually unknown by comparison. Elgar’s concerto was written in 1919, with the dark pall of WWI hanging heavily upon its composer, who wrote, next to its entry in his catalogue of works, “Finis. R.I.P.”. Its 1919 premiere was a disaster, and it languished in popularity until recorded by Jacqueline du Pré in 1965 (incredibly, she was only 20) and her technically…